Archive for July, 2011

This 19 year old spitfire got her break about a month ago at a festival in NY. Since then, her mixtape has spread across the internet like virus. She’s feisty and unforgiving, stealing beats from a variety of venues in the electronic and hip-hop cultures; a true low life. Cop her entire ep over at bandcamp.

In the summer of ’04, Soul Keita, Nikita Quasim and Nicolas Jaar met for the first time, at the border between Tijuana and San Diego. They both felt endangered yet empowered by a force they could not express through words. So Nikita sang, while Soul and Nicolas clapped their hands. For the past four years, these three individuals have been trying to re-create this moment in no man’s land until Nicolas Jaar founded Clown and Sunset, an outlet for these three artists to re-invent lost memories.

French Born, Montreal resident, Valentin Stip is the fourth and final member added to this sonic collective / revolutionary label.

“Val isn’t after direct translation so much as transformation. He works in mediums popularly appropriated for clubs while looking backwards in time for their future. Listening to his baroque structures sounds like what I imagine Wagner might if his music were deconstructed into fragments. You are aware of the total work, but you only hear it’s echoes.”

Rusko has put a smile on my face the size of 2009. He throws down a tasty Busta-rhymes sample over some classic Rusko wobble. I may be basking in nostalgia, but who doesn’t look good with a tan. Somebody give me a bloody high-five, or something.

This exemplary future-bass bit also comes out of the outback, ft. samples from the soulful Mary J. Blige and Justin Timberlake. Bounce, or rather percolate down the summer road to this brilliantly, funky jam. Its becoming clear that the down-under is on the up and coming.

The Mel-born Plnk (see what I did there- he’s from Melbourne) exhibits this refreshing example of speckled-chillwave-postdub. It leans and drags like a trudge through a searingly picturesque Australian heat-wave.

AstroLogical, known in the Vancouver daylight as Nate Drobner, coats us with yet another layer of articulate, yet dreamy, instrumental hip hop. His latest release, that he so kindly is dolling out for mere thanks, serves as a lesson in subtlety. The fractal melting of a birds chirp, the splash of a morning dip, the delicately panned “woohs” and “ahs” in his atmosphere combine with head-bobbing, lip-pursing, bass lines and beats. He treads the line between ambient and hip-hop boldly, and successfully. Here’s a few that stand out, but the album in its entirety can be acquired here, from the frequently fresh, Vancouver label, Jelly Fish Recording.

We asked the man himself to sum his album up:

“Far Far Away is a selection of tracks I made from summer to winter 2010… sunstroked dreamy-jazz island moods… wet textures to dive into… dirty drums…I did more live basslines and synth work this time around. album art drawn by Eli HeadSPace Muro.”

One of the last rock and rollers on the planet died this past week. M.I.A. pays her dues with a melancholy dedication. We pay our own. Take a listen to these bits off of the 2008 compilation “I Told You I Was Remixed”. We apologize for the low quality of these tunes. It certainly does not represent the quality of her iconic voice and persona. Low-Life-High-Death. Rest In Peace.

Let us take the time to lift our heads from the fast flowing torrent of new music and breath in the educational oxygen of Skream’s wizardry, circa 2007. It is a robust mix, in both size and sub-capacity; perfect for that road trip towards your music festival of choice.

“I began studying music at a young age. Both parents were classical musicians. My mother an opera singer and father a conductor. We were living in Vienna Austria till I was 8 years old, after which I moved with my mother to Los Angeles which is where I still live today.

At about the age of 4 my father began training me on the piano, but that focus changed to drums once I moved to LA, with DJing becoming my main interest soon after.

A year after graduating high school around 1993, I was accepted to CalArts, however I chose not to attend in order to start my music career. I was involved with various sound design and post production music projects and after a few years I managed to reach my goal of only working on my own compositions as my main focus.”

Party Girl takes your hand and leads you into a hazy, midsummer night’s dream. Released on Anaheim-based label Zoom Lens in December of 2010, this sonic treat slipped my mind before resurfacing on a summer playlist. There’s an aphrodisiacal quality present within their three-track EP (available for free here) despite the sedation induced by their aural aesthetic. Enjoy our pick from the album below.

Alex Ebert seems to be channeling some serious next level energies. The guy is nothing short of possessed. As intruiging as his fucked-up stare is, what seems more intriguing is the recent collaberations of the week. First Tyler and Pusha T contrasting lifestyle images and now Edward Sharpe and Wu-Tang’s RZA taking some high road.

The video I am sharing is sans RZA but watch Alexander dispose his own kind of mystical flow.

Two masters of the collaborative game come together to deliver an undeniably massive sound. This track will be heard world wide. It jumps from Datsik’s two step and laser bass tendency, to Diplo’s knack for dance floor bounce and clever studio production, effortlessly. Its only 192 kpbs, but that’s the price one has to pay for hearing it first.

A little while back I stumbled upon a simply delightful collection of synth-infused, jazz-bathed, beats, that have served as the sound track to my summer afternoons sipping simple-syruped concoctions in the sunshine. Just press play guys and dolls, its that kind of album.Trust in the generosity of Mr. Bahwee and cop the LP free of charge.

The warrior himself releases this bomb free of charge. It chugs with simplicity. Similarities to best buddy, Skream’s recent tune, “Heavy Hitter,” beg for speculation of a gentleman’s game of one-up-ing. Decide for yourself:

James Blake just released two new songs on Untold’s experimental bass music label- Hemlock Recordings. Blake has had several previous releases on Hemlock, including a tremendous remix of Untold’s Stop What You’re Doing.

The new release, Order/Pan, features two very unnerving sparse, dark, sub-driven instrumentals.

Rather than elaborating on how magnificent these three artists are, I’d like to share the first 12″ off of Radiohead’s King of Limbs remix series- both tunes are mesmerizing to say the least. On July 5th, Radiohead began a series of limited edition vinyl releases with these two tracks. We’re looking forward to the rest.

Gilles Peterson curates one of the most tasteful radio shows in the world of music. Be sure to check out his show on BBC Radio 1 this week to hear mini-mixes from Kode9, Flying Lotus, and Jamie xx as well as exclusive interviews from the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Festival, which just took place from July 6-10 in Sète, France.

Shlohmo took on the daunting project to remix Burial’s Shell of Light from his second LP Untrue. To put it differently, the original song is beautiful and haunting- how could you go and change anything about it?

Shlohmo’s remix does not disappoint; he stitches together a deep melodic version, which emphasizes the short vocal line found at the end of Burial’s original mix. (I have to admit, this short vocal phrase at the end of Burial’s song always broke my heart. But it loses the slightest bit of of impact in Shlohmo’s version because he repeats it.)

At any rate, this is easily one of the most exceptional remixes of the summer from one of the most talented young electronic music producers around right now. Our many thanks to WEDIDIT for their wonderful music.

Relish in the latest tranquilizing beats from D33J (WEDIDIT). There’s something intimate about the subdued vibes and prominent speech samples within the 23-minute mix-tape, which, on the L.A. beat collectives website, he explains.

“Gonna Dip for a few weeks round South/Eastern Europe so not sure ill have to much time for recording/ working on finishing the next EP. wanted to give you guys something thats been overdue for a while now. This tape was recorded in the now deceased ‘Traphouse”, where a gang of hooligans used to skate inside, make neon colored rice, screenprint weed leaf underwear, watch rivers edge on the bigscreen, get visits from the peoples champ on a regular basis, learn to tattoo, host swedish girls on vacation, and serve as a forum for pointless debates about which strain is better // among other things. These recordings are composed almost entirely live using my SP/DR 202’s, with some live remixes/looping and some drunken jams w/ my boy Shlohmo. I don’t usually record to tape, but when I do, I make sure im drunk. Thanks for listening.”

Malta, the experimental and relatively unknown electronica project of Alex Rajabi, flutters between smooth instrumental hip-hop and distorted pop music. Driven by pacifying synths, his latest, and in my opinion, best work is spellbinding. Malta matures in his aural aesthetic and infuses a palpable groove into this charming tune.

Hessle is putting out some strikingly unique and compelling experimental UK Garage. It is curated by Ben UFO, Pangaea and Pearson Sound (a.k.a. Ramadanman). If you want to read a bit more about Hessle, check out this article in Fact.